India sought to address concerns that its mandate to pre-install a cybersecurity app on mobile phones could invade privacy or enable surveillance, saying individuals can remove the software from devices.
In a directive on Friday, the Ministry of Communications asked phone makers and importers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app, which is aimed at curbing cyber fraud. The order instructed firms to ensure the app is readily accessible and “that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted”.
“If you don’t want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it,” Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a statement posted by the ministry on social media on Tuesday. “It is optional.”
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The government’s order to require the app on mobile phones had sparked an uproar. Opposition Congress party leader Mallikarjun Kharge said in a social media post on Tuesday the move would lead to “snooping, surveilling, scanning and peeping”, calling it “akin to dictatorship”.
Government officials, who asked not to be named, said the app was designed for items such as helping users fight back against fraud, block stolen handsets from being used and check the veracity of mobile connections.
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They said the app had access to phone data such as logs of phone calls and text messages, and would seek permissions from users to use the camera and other functions. They said it never had access to the microphone, location, Bluetooth or operating system.